The present invention relates to a destination input method in a navigation system, whereby, when a category is inputted, Points of Interest (POI) belonging to the category are displayed in the form of a list, and a destination POI is selected from the POI list to thereby input a destination.
A navigation system for giving travel guidance to a vehicle driver whereby the driver can easily reach a desired destination detects the position of the vehicle, and reads map data for the area surrounding the vehicle position from a map storage medium, such as a CD-ROM, DVD, etc. In the MAP GUIDE MODE, the navigation system draws the map and the guide route on the display screen, and superimposes a vehicle position mark at a specific location on the map. As the present vehicle position varies with movement of the vehicle, the system moves the vehicle position mark along the guide route, or scrolls the map with the vehicle position mark fixed at a specific position, so that the driver can see a detailed map surrounding the vehicle position at a single glance. In the ARROW GUIDE MODE, the guide route, the roads intersecting the guide route, etc., are displayed in a simplified manner; the travel direction at an intersection is displayed by an arrow; the distance to the intersection, direction toward the destination, distance to the destination, etc., are displayed; and, further, the travel direction at the intersection is guided by voice output.
In order to set the route guidance in the MAP GUIDE MODE or the ARROW GUIDE MODE, the driver must input a destination, so that the system can search a guide route to the destination. Following are methods to input a destination:
(1) directly inputting the address of a destination,
(2) in the case of a destination being an intersection, specifying two streets and inputting the intersection,
(3) inputting the Place Name of a POIas the destination,
(4) inputting the Place Type (category) of a POIas the destination to display a candidate list for the Place Name, and selecting a destination Place Name from the candidate list,
(5) displaying the latest destinations of n number, and selecting a current destination from among them,
(6) selecting a destination from places registered beforehand in the address book,
(7) specifying a destination directly on the map with the cursor, and
(8) inputting the telephone number of a destination POI.
When inputting a destination by method (4), the user operates the menu key on the remote control unit to display the main menu on the screen (refer to FIG. 6(a)), and selects the menu item xe2x80x9cDestxe2x80x9d from the main menu.
Then, the navigation system displays the screen xe2x80x9cFind Destination byxe2x80x9d for specifying the destination input method, as shown in FIG. 6(b). If the user selects the menu item xe2x80x9cPoint of Interestxe2x80x9d, the navigation system will display the menu items, xe2x80x9cPlace Namexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cPlace Typexe2x80x9d, as shown in FIG. 6(c). If the user selects the menu item xe2x80x9cPlace Typexe2x80x9d, the navigation system will display the screen xe2x80x9cSelect Categoryxe2x80x9d, which is a category list as shown in FIG. 6(d). With the selection of a specific category (for example, shopping) from the category list, the navigation system displays an alphabet/numeric keyboard for inputting the city names, as shown in FIG. 6(e). The spelling i of only the leading few characters of the city name by the user will display a list of the city names having the inputted spelling, which can be scrolled. Then, the user selects a desired city name (for example, Costa Mesa) from this list, or inputs the entire spelling of the city name. In response to the input of the city name, the navigation system displays the list of all the POI of the specified category that exist in the city to be scrollable as shown in FIG. 6(f). If the user selects a desired POI (for example, Triangle Square) from the POI list, the navigation system will display the name, address, telephone number, and the like of the POI. When the POI is acceptable as the destination, the user selects xe2x80x9cOK to Proceedxe2x80x9d to select the destination. Thereafter, the navigation system searches a guide route to the destination from the present vehicle position for display.
In the process mentioned above, if the user selects a desired POI (for example, baseball stadium, airport, shopping mall, etc.), a conventional navigation system will not display a POI associated with the desired POI (for example, parking lots belonging to the baseball stadium or the airport, or individual tenants in the shopping mall); and the system does not permit the user to view information of the associated POI or set the associated POI as the destination.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to make it possible to display POI information associated with a selected POI and set an associated POI as a destination.
In accordance with the invention, the above object can be achieved by defining a relation between a POI and parking lots for the POI, a relation between a POI and tenants in the POI, and the like as a parentage, with each POI being associated with detailed information of polygon data, address, position, etc. If the POI is a parent, it is associated with a list of child POIs or polygon data thereof, and when a parent POI is selected, (1) the detailed information and a polygon of the parent are displayed, (2) a list of the child POIs or polygon data of the child POIs are displayed as requested, (3) a child POI is selected from the list of child POIs or the polygon data of the child POIs to input a destination.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.